The
largest and best-known member of the hyena
family, the Spotted Hyena (Crocuta crocuta)
is primarily a predator, not a scavenger.
Individuals have been clocked at over 55 kilometres
per hour (34 mph), and when hunting in packs
are capable of taking down the largest of
prey. Spotted Hyenas have such formidable
jaws (one of the strongest in the animal kingdom)
and teeth that they devour even the bones
of their kill. The hyena's distinctive laughing
call, used to disorient prey and gather the
pack, has resulted in their nickname "laughing
hyena". Adult females, weighing up to around
72 kilograms (158 lb), are heavier than the
males, which are typically 10 kilograms (22
lb) lighter.

Female
Spotted Hyenas are larger than their male
counterparts, and socially dominant over them.
Males leave their natal group on reaching
sexual maturity, while females remain in it;
the society is highly structured, with dominance
relationship between the matrilines (the groups
of females descended from a single mother)
that endure for generations.

The
female Spotted Hyena's urogenital system is
unique among mammals: there is no vagina,
and the clitoris is as large and as erectile
as the male's penis - only the shape of the
glans makes it possible to tell the sexes
apart. The female urinates, mates and gives
birth through this modified clitoris (it contracts
for mating, the opening widening to admit
the male's penis). In the wild, survival rates
of females seem to fall sharply around the
age of first giving birth, suggesting that
the process is hazardous for the mother also.
This suggests that at some point there must
have been powerful selective pressures driving
the evolution of masculinisation.

While
Spotted Hyenas have no real predators (besides
humans), they are on occasion killed by lions,
which eat the same foods and will often clash
with hyenas over kills. The explanation for
this competition is that lions and spotted
hyenas are of the same guild. Although lions
are much larger, hyenas will defend their
kills if possible, and hyena packs have been
known to kill lions if they outnumber them
significantly.

Spotted
Hyenas live in the savannas and deserts, in
clans averaging 40 individuals - with some
as large as 100.